


5 Days of Christmas

by murphallo



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Banter, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Christmas, Christmas Cookies, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Christmas Shopping, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Post-Canon, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Romantic Fluff, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27982770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/murphallo/pseuds/murphallo
Summary: A year after the events of season one, Julie and Luke are dating and, due to lack of ideas, Luke has waited 'til the last minute to choose a gift for her. Swept up in Christmas festivities all week, can Luke pull off the perfect gift in time to blow Julie's mind?
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina, Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina & Luke Patterson, Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 6
Kudos: 105





	1. Day Zero

There was some Christmas boat parade over in Marina Del Rey, and the original plan was for the boys to go check it out while Julie and Flynn made Christmas cookies, but Flynn came down with food poisoning.

“Luke, seriously, the last batch of cookies are in the oven, you can go meet up with Alex and Reggie. I won’t mind!” Julie insisted yet again.

“We still have to make the frosting!” In reality, Luke really couldn’t care less about Christmas cookies and frosting, but Julie cared, which was obviously all he needed.

“It’s literally just butter and sugar mixed in a bowl!”

“Uhhhh, and food coloring! How could you forget food coloring?”

Julie rolled her eyes, not-so-secretly loving every moment of his choosing to spend time with her, before going to check on the cookies. “Browning around the edges,” she gleefully announced.

Luke was actually on a mission tonight. When Julie told him Flynn had gotten sick, he saw an opportunity.

“So where are we gonna put the presents on Saturday?” he asked, as she retrieved the frosting ingredients from her cabinets. “ We don’t have a tree in the studio this year.”

“I was thinking maybe under the piano? We can decorate it all Christmassy and stuff!”

“Okay, I like that! And I’ll know which one is your present to me because it’ll be the only box bigger than the actual piano, right?”

“Oh, yeah, for sure. It’ll have a big marquee over it that says ‘For Luke’.” 

“Sounds perfect! And then I’ll open it up and I’ll seeeeee…?”

“An eviction notice!”  
Luke clasped a hand over his heart like he was wounded. “Well, I’ll let you know what I got you! I got you... a star!”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Like, one of those star claim things you fill out online to name someone?” She looked unimpressed.  _ Okay, star’s out, _ Luke thought.

“No, like an actual star. Like I went to space and-” She laughed and playfully shoved him before he could finish. “What?! It’s what I did!”

“Right! And I have the moon waiting for you in my backyard.” 

“Oh, really?” he said, jumping to sit on the kitchen counter, leaning back as if to look through the backyard window. “I don’t see it. Hey, do you think I could actually go to space? Like I could poof into space and I don’t even need air-”

“So what  _ did  _ you get me?” Julie asked, big, brown eyes suddenly expectant. 

Luke resisted the urge to gulp. “You first.”

“Your gift is… fancy! Aaaand extravagant! And super Hollywood. And impossible to outdo.” She smirked, satisfied with herself.

_ UH OH!  _ That was not the answer Luke had expected or wanted. “Well, sorry to disappoint you, but uh… I gotta say I definitely take the cake this year. I don’t know what you have planned, but mine is gonna make you lose. your. mind.” For effect, he mimed a brain explosion. 

Another eye roll from Julie as she popped a cookie in her mouth and muttered “Right” with a mouth half full.

“If you keep eating the cookies, we won’t have any to decorate!” Luke teased.

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have eaten most of these if you could.”

This was painfully true. He could smell the buttery sugar cookies and he knew his stomach would be growling if he had bodily functions. But, once again, Julie was enjoying the cookies, and that was enough for him. 

“You know, I put a lot of effort into these cookies, maybe there’s another way I could get a taste?” He slightly leaned toward her, almost joking, but pleased to see her leaning back.

She closed her eyes and the last thing he saw before closing his eyes was her smile growing. 

He waited in anticipation before feeling her finger swiftly slide across his nose and lips. He opened his eyes in shock to see her tasting the finger she’d just touched him with. “Mm!” she exclaimed. “The frosting is good!” 

“Oh, really?!” Those words were all she needed to turn on her heels and run. Luke hopped off the counter and let Julie maintain her lead for a few moments before speeding up to scoop her up in his arms, dramatically yelling as she yelped through her laughs.

Their glee was interrupted by a stern calling of Julie’s name, prompting him to put her down. 

“Dad!” she exclaimed, and Luke quickly wiped the frosting off his face despite being invisible.

“I saw you in the air just now, just tell me which one is here.”

Julie had told Ray the secret of her band in the past year, and he’d gotten to know them pretty well since. He still couldn’t see them, but he could gauge who was doing what in the house or in the studio. If the place was a little neater, Alex had probably been by. If it was a little messier, Reggie paid a visit. If Julie was smiling from ear to ear and holding back a giggle with stars dancing in her eyes for seemingly no reason… well…. 

Plus, Ray had established a specific Luke curfew. Not just because they were dating, but he knew that, unchecked, the two of them would work on their music together ‘til sunrise. He was a little more lenient since she was on winter break from school, but he definitely wasn’t “three hours past Luke curfew” lenient. 

Julie surveyed the kitchen. Too messy for Alex, so…

“Reggie!”

Her dad gave her a skeptical eyebrow. “ _ Reggie  _ had you laughing like that?”

“Yeah! Yeah, he was just telling me a, uhhhhh, a story! From the ’90s! About…… hot dogs!”

Luke grimaced. “You had to pick that one?” he asked her, knowing he wouldn’t get a reply. 

“Okay,” Ray conceded, shrugging. “But it’s 1 am, break or not, it’s time to get some sleep. And  _ you,”  _ he asserted, pointing at Julie’s left side as Luke listened, very much on her right. “Clean this mess up.”

“I’m sure the empty space will get right to cleaning, sir,” Luke replied.

“Actually, Dad, he’s over here,” Julie said, tilting her head in his direction.

“Oh, giving away my position?” Luke walked around Ray to stand behind him, pointing his finger at Julie as her dad pointed at the space where Luke once was.

“Clean this mess up,” Ray said as Luke synced his mocking finger-wagging with Ray’s very serious ones. “If you guys had wrapped this up earlier, Julie could’ve helped.” It was all Julie could do to not laugh at Luke’s deeply furrowed eyebrows and pinched lips to pull off the effect. “Consider that next time you guys wanna be up this late.”

Any more of this and Julie was gonna blow both of their covers; she had to get out of there. “Sorry, Dad, won’t happen again, goodnight!” She hurried past, letting Luke hear the faintest giggle as she passed, inspiring his smuggest grin. 

“I love you!” he shouted when she was halfway up the stairs, and she stomped a little louder as Luke laughed, knowing she couldn’t respond. 

The oven dinged, prompting Ray to stick one last Dad Finger in the air, no longer pointing in any particular direction. “And take out those cookies too!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!! Hope you enjoy this lil introductory chapter for the story, and I'll be posting updates every few days until Christmas eve! This one's short, but I think it's sweet and I hope you guys enjoy it :) If you like this, make sure to check out my Nerve fic and my fluffy one-shot as well (I might also be working on another one-shot au :D)


	2. Day One

“DUDE!” Alex yelled at the top of his lungs, stumbling into the studio with Reggie closely behind. “DUDE, THAT WAS INSANE!”

“YEAH, YOU MISSED OUT! We got on the floats, we backed up the singers, it was AWESOME!” Reggie followed with, at a slightly lower volume than Alex. 

“AND THE LIGHTS? DUDE? THE LIGHTS WERE SO WILD! And there were FIREWORKS AND-”

“See,  _ this  _ is why you should’ve come with me last year!”

“I’M NEVER MISSING THAT AGAIN!”

Taking a break from their dual euphoria, Reggie finally took a glance at the couch to see Luke staring at the ceiling, eyes wide, unblinking.

“Uh… Luke? You okay?” he asked, finally diverting Alex’s attention to Luke.

Without breaking eye contact with the ceiling, Luke simply muttered, mostly to himself, “Julie got me… something… fancy.”

“... okay?”

“And… extravagant. And apparently it’s ‘super Hollywood’.” 

“Well, I hope whatever you got her is fancy too.”

Finally, Luke broke his whisper to shout, “I haven’t gotten her anything!”

“Oh,” the boys said in unison. 

Reggie still tried to encourage. “Well, I’m sure you’ll nail it again this year. You nailed last year’s Christmas and her birthday!”

“Yeah, but we weren’t dating then! This year’s gift has to be epic and I don’t have  _ any  _ ideas!” Luke sat up to bury his head in his hands, prompting Alex to sit by him.  _ Perfect! Alex! _ “Alex! What are you getting Willie?”

“Hey!” Reggie protested. “How come you didn’t ask me for ideas?”

The idea alone sent shivers through Luke as he and Alex looked at Reggie with pure judgement. “I…” Alex began. “I got Willie a really nice new pair of headphones! Noise cancelling! He’s gonna love them. Although they might not be great under his helmet-”

“Headphones?! That’s not even romantic!”

“Neither is Willie, so it fits!”

“What I was  _ going  _ to say, if you  _ had  _ asked,” Reggie interjected again. “You should just go down to Rodeo Drive or something tonight and pick something. It’s LA, you’ll have her gift in no time at all!”

Luke beamed. “Reggie, you’re a genius! Alex! Can you come with me?”

Reggie stamped a foot. “Aw, come on!”

“There’s nothing here!” It had been 3 hours of searching through fancy stuff in the dark and nothing had satisfied Luke. 

Reggie turned around wearing a gigantic beige fur coat with a matching hat, and sunglasses way too big for his face. “I beg to differ,” he said in a posh accent.

Alex held up a large red leather purse. “What about this? She was talking about wanting a new bag for school!”

“She was?” Reggie questioned. 

It was a nice purse, but not quite right. “No,” Luke said, continuing to search through racks of dresses. 

“Oo!” Reggie called, holding up possibly the ugliest sweater Luke had ever seen. It was pink with a badly stitched orange cartoon cat on the front, confirming for Luke that rich people really will buy anything as long as it’s expensive. “What about this? She likes cats!”

Luke looked back at Alex, who was already looking at him, before they both looked back at Reggie and slowly shook their heads.

“Right,” Reggie agreed, putting the sweater down.

Luke’s frustration was intensifying. “I just wish I had an idea before I came here, like I usually do.”

“Come on, man,” Reggie said, also putting the fur coat and hat he had donned back on the rack. “I’m sure she’s gonna love whatever you get her. Just pick something, wrap it, and give it to her!”

“Have you seen my wrapping? Uh-uh.” Luke moved on to the next dress rack. “It’s gotta be something that screams ‘Julie’ or, at least, something related to us.”

“This dress is blue! You guys both like blue, right?!”

Alex rolled his eyes and walked over to console his confused friend. “Reggie’s… weird, but he has a point. Literally anything you get her is gonna make her think of you because she loves you.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Just pick something so you can actually enjoy this week instead of spending the whole time stressed over something you really don’t need to.”

Luke wanted to protest, but Alex and Reggie’s words had some truth to them. Luke knew Julie loved him and anything he did for her, but that was often what made doing things special for her so much fun.

But he knew how much she loved when he enjoyed things with her, and he couldn’t enjoy her favorite holiday if his mind was elsewhere. 

He mentally vowed to steal her the Hope Diamond next year if he had to as he picked up a baby blue purse he’d liked earlier. He held it up for the boys to appraise as he shrugged. “We both like blue, right?”

The others nodded as they all got ready to poof out, but Alex stopped, causing Luke to stop as he followed his eyes to the horrendously huge sunglasses sticking out of Reggie’s shirt pocket.

“What?! It’s Christmas!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all this is a short chapter with just a couple scenes which big yikes but the rest of the chapters are around my normal length so woot woot lol but I hope you enjoy a little ghost trio humor!! Btw, despite how this chapter ends, Luke's gift troubles are not over yet, I can assure you. See y'all on the 15th for the next update!! Also thank you guys a LOT for the reads, kudos, and subscriptions so far! Maybe leave a comment too if you like the story thus far :)  
> Make sure you check out the Nerve chapter I post tomorrow too or check that fic out if you haven't yet!!  
> (Also, side note that no one cares about, but I just have to say: Before you guys think I was exaggerating with weird rich people clothing, I want you to know the cat sweater Reggie held up was inspired by a real sweater I found on Gucci's website that was so many levels of booty ugly it was insane, and the only difference is it was a blue sweater with a red cat. Y'all, it was so ugly. And the worst part is it cost $2,200. Do you understand what I could do with $2,200? Almost anything I did with it would be better than buying this sweater yo. It was the stuff of nightmares.)


	3. Day Two

Luke’s day began as it often did: waiting for confirmation that Julie was awake. The purse was hidden in the soundboard of the piano and he was confident she would never find it there. As far as Julie knew, Luke would never be dumb enough to mess with her mom’s piano. He just barely was.

“Dude, you don’t have to stare at her window. She’s gonna be here at 10 to decorate,” Reggie said, bored at the quiet in the studio.

“The morning Luke doesn’t wait for Julie to wake up is the morning hell has frozen over,” Alex replied. 

“Guys, I’ve been thinking and Julie is seriously gonna love this purse,” Luke said, smiling so big the boys feared his cheeks might somehow break. “I mean, think about it. When she goes to, like, fancy events and stuff, she can have it on her and look all classy! And she always says blue goes with everything!”

“Hey, look! She’s up!”

Luke looked back to the window to see her walk around her room for a bit, grab some clothes, and head to her bathroom. He checked the clock and it was almost time for her to come to decorate the cookies.

“I’ll go get her,” Alex piped, getting off the couch. “She’ll want help bringing the cookies.”

“Are you sure?” Luke responded. “I mean, I can-”

“Nah, it’s cool, she wanted to talk to me about something anyway. You and Reggie just set the table; we’ll be back soon.”

A few minutes after Luke and Reggie finished getting everything ready, Alex phased through the wall holding two plates of cookies. “Luke!” he shout-whispered, even though Reggie could totally hear him, and Luke walked quickly over to him. “We need to talk. Alone.”

“Whatever it is, it can wait ‘til after the cookies. Julie’ll only be here ‘til 12, so we can talk after that, cool?”

“No, dude, we gotta-”

Alex was interrupted by the garage’s side door opening as Julie pushed it open with her shoulder, looking around the room, also carrying two plates of cookies. “So I guess none of you learned to open the door for someone?”

Flynn had tired of socializing with the boys faster than Carlos. At first, Carlos was stoked to have 3 ghost big brothers living with him, but eventually, like Flynn, he’d gotten tired of always being left out of the fun no matter how hard they tried to include him. It got too frustrating for Julie to be laughing for 2 minutes before she could calm down to even tell Carlos the joke. Or instinctually darting his eyes in the direction Julie looked, only to remember he’d never be able to see “his” friends.

Because of this, Julie could only hang out with the boys for 2 hours because she’d promised him that she and Flynn would do Christmas stuff with him today, including decorating half of the cookies she’d made with Luke.

The two hours flew by faster than all of them would have preferred and soon only minutes were left. Julie’s cookies were, of course, fabulous- almost professional. Alex’s were obviously amateur, but better than most people could hope for. Reggie’s cookies were objectively bad, but better than anyone expected from him. And Luke’s… well… Luke’s were expected. 

“They’re not that bad!” Julie defended.

“Julie!” Reggie could hardly say through his laughter. “His cookies look like a kindergartener did them.”

Alex butted in, “That’s an insult to kindergarteners.”

“Oh, really?” Luke challenged. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to start over then.” He wiped the wet frosting off the cookie he was working on directly onto Alex’s cheek, inspiring loud, prolonged “Ohhh!”s from Julie and Reggie.

“I hope you don’t expect my family to eat that one!”

“Why not?” Luke said, dipping a finger into the bowl of frosting and pretending to lick it off. “We’re completely sanitary!”  
Julie mock wretched and threw a pinch of sprinkles at him, laughing, and threw yet _another_ quick look around the studio. 

“What do you keep looking around for?” Luke finally questioned. 

She popped a defective cookie in her mouth, caught off guard by the question. “Nuffin’.”

“You know, you’re never gonna find it.” He could feel himself getting cocky.

“Oh, really?” She swallowed the cookie, now emboldened by Luke’s banter.

“Hey, guys? Maybe we shouldn’t talk about gifts ‘til it’s actually Christmas,” Alex stated, only to be shushed by Julie holding up a hand.

Luke continued. “Really. Because my gift for you is so great, I could never risk you finding it before it was time.”

“Well, by that logic, my gift is buried in the Marianas Trench.”

Luke didn’t make it obvious that he didn’t know what that was. “My gift for you is so great, I honestly think I should get an award.”

“Oh really? Is your gift fancy?”

Alex tried again. “Guys, I think-”

“The fanciest,” Luke interrupted. “Is your gift special?”

“The special...est.” Luke couldn’t help but crack a smile at the fake word. “Is your gift one of a kind?”

 _Maybe I could glue a little patch on it._ “Yep! Only one like it in the world.”

“Guys!” Alex shouted over the argument, more serious than they thought the situation called for, silencing them. 

“Woah, Alex,” Julie laughed. “I know you’re jealous, but I’m sure Willie’s gift for you is gonna be great!” 

“I-I just didn’t wanna spoil any surprises,” Alex said sheepishly, the residual edge still in his voice.

Julie’s eyes went to the clock and she shot up. “Crap! Is that the time? I’m late for Flynn and Carlos! I’ll see you guys later, okay?” 

Julie left, leaving Luke aching for more banter like she always did. More snark, more affection, just _more._

When he turned his head back from the door, Alex was looking at him impatiently. “Can we have that talk now?”

Reggie stayed in the studio while Luke followed a still weirdly on edge Alex outside. “Woah, dude, who died? Besides us.” Alex looked back at Luke with an all too familiar look of disappointment. “Sorry. Stupid joke. Continue.”

“You gotta get Julie another gift.”

Deep down, Luke had known the gift wasn’t right for her, making it all the worse when it was confirmed. “Wait, what?”

“Dude, just trust me, take the purse back and get her something else.”

“What? Why? What’s wrong with the purse?”

Alex paused, thinking through his answer. “She showed me what she got you.”

That was a curveball Luke didn’t quite expect. If she asked Alex’s opinion, she _really_ cared about this gift. “What was it?”

“Obviously, I’m not gonna tell you. And don’t tell Reggie I told you either; Julie only wanted to tell me because-”

“Reggie can’t keep a secret.”

“Exactly.”

Luke’s attempt to keep from panicking was quickly failing. “So, what, she’s gonna hate the purse?”

“No, she’d like the purse. It’s you I’m worried about. If she gives you this gift and you give her a purse, you’re gonna hate yourself for it, and I, personally, am not trying to hear you complain about Christmas of 2021 for _literal_ eternity.”

Part of Luke wanted to deny that he’d eternally complain about getting Julie one bad gift, but he knew that would be useless. “So what do I get her?”

“Something one of a kind. And specifically for her, like you were saying before.”

“You want me to customize something? You usually have to talk to a worker for that, and in case you haven’t noticed, we can’t talk to people!”

Alex ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “Dude, I don’t know! Just remember she’ll love anything you do and do your best.”

“... I am unromantic and I have two days.”

Alex gave Luke a weak attempt at a comforting hand on his shoulder. “More like a day and a half.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking around for day 2 of the 5 day search!! Remember to leave a kudo or comment and sub for more!! And check out my other fics too as the Willex x Nerve fic is still ongoing! Thank you for reading :)


	4. Day Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for stopping by!! And thanks for the kudos and hits so far!! I have another 6 parter I finished that's currently in beta (way way WAY longer than this lol it was supposed to be under 10k words and turned into my longest fic yet) so I hope to start uploading it next year (if anyone interested because like no one is giving me feedback on this one lololol) but I hope y'all enjoy the second half of this story because it's got a lot more juke interactions than the first half :))

In the early hours of the morning, before anything was open, Luke went back to the ritzy store where he got the baby blue purse he’d intended for Julie and put it back on the shelf where he found it. For a moment, he contemplated continuing his search in this store, but as he looked around at all the needlessly luxurious items with at least 3 identical copies behind, he became angry with himself for ever thinking Julie’s perfect gift could be in such a shallow store. He wanted to continue his search, but the sun would be coming up soon.

With the sun’s rising came early riser Julie, ready to create loud noises despite the fact that she’d barely woken up 30 minutes ago. Luke, Reggie and Alex, who all fully remembered what it was like to be human immediately after waking up, never could understand that. 

Mr. Molina had a rule that they had to keep the noise down until 11 am, so this was an acoustic rehearsal, which Alex always hated.

“It never sounds the same when I’m just tapping the floor!”

Nevertheless, the rehearsal of their own rock version of Sleigh Ride went well, which made Julie happy. It meant they didn’t have to rehearse tomorrow and could spend all day doing Christmas Eve festivities. 

After their fourth perfect run-through, Alex slung his fanny pack over himself and put on his hat. “Wait, where are you going?” Julie whined.

Reggie responded to her question, “I’ll give you one guess.”

Alex rolled his eyes, walking to the bookshelf behind the drum set. “I probably won’t see Willie much over the next couple days, so we’re celebrating today.” 

He retrieved a small wrapped present from the bookshelf, and in turn, Luke leaned into Julie and informed her it was a pair of headphones. “You know, dude, if it’s a problem, you don’t really have to be with us  _ all  _ day tomorrow and Saturday.”

“No, I wanna be here!” Alex reassured Luke. “Christmas is a family holiday. I’ll just have him here for New Year’s.” 

All of their hearts swelled as Alex poofed out of the room, after Julie asked him to tell Willie she said hi. 

“I gotta go too,” announced Reggie.

“What could you  _ possibly  _ have to do right now?” Luke asked.

“For your information, they’re performing  _ A Christmas Carol _ over at the Pantages.” Julie and Luke communicated through a look that this was clearly not the answer they expected. “I’ll have you know,” Reggie defended indignantly, “that I am a man of many tastes.”

And with that, he poofed out, leaving Julie and Luke alone in the studio, which they both found  _ so  _ unfortunate. 

“So what do you wanna do?” Julie asked. “We can get a headstart on decorating the piano or try our hand at another Christmas song, or decorate the cookies we didn’t get to yesterday, or try writing another Christmas song, or….”

Luke playfully rolled his eyes. “Actually, I was gonna ask for your help with something.”

“Sure,” Julie responded, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “What is it?”

“I still think we should’ve written another Christmas song,” Julie protested, rolling out the roll of wrapping paper onto her bedroom floor. 

“You  _ really  _ want a repeat of last year?” Luke countered.

“Last year was your fault! Who makes Christmas violent?!”

“Forgive me for wanting to be the first!”

“I think you scarred Carlos for life!”

“Are you sure about that? Because I heard him singing ‘Santa’s sleigh crashed into my house’ under his breath a couple months after we performed.”

Julie curled her lips inward to refrain from laughing as she glided the scissors across the wrapping paper. “So, if I’m wrapping these, who’s wrapping mine?”

Luke reached up to scratch the back of his head. “Probably Alex, like last year.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding almost... disappointed?

“Trust me, you don’t wanna see my wrapping. It looks a lot like my handwriting.”

Julie set the Nike shoebox Luke had gotten Alex in the middle of the paper. “Just give it here real quick and I’ll wrap it for you.”

“Ha ha,” Luke replied sarcastically.

“Speaking of which, did you wanna fight about the gifts , or are you afraid to lose again?”

He smiled. “I’m saving my comebacks for the post-exchange debate.”

“Oh, so you’ve run out. Makes sense. Oh, well. Guess I win by default.”

“You have been  _ way  _ sassier than usual, Molina.”

Julie broke her sass to softly smile in the direction of the paper she was folding over Alex’s gift. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just… excited? Like, I got everyone cool gifts but yours is… nope! Not gonna spoil it.” She went back to dutifully folding and taping, humming under her breath.

Luke was caught in a rough spot. On one hand, hearing Julie talk about how great her gift for him was mentally crippled him, but on the other hand, there was nothing he loved more than seeing her this happy. 

But still, he didn’t have it in him to continue lying about how great and amazing his nonexistent gift was. All he could do was reach for her hand and place a kiss on her fingers. “I love you, you know that?”

She got even happier. After this long, she always reacted to that like the first time he told her. She took her hand from his to place it on the side of his face, sending indescribable warmth through him. “I love you too.” He could’ve spent the rest of the day staring into her eyes, but she cut the moment off. “How about when I’m done wrapping these, we have a Christmas movie marathon tonight? Just you and me?”

_ Oh, god. Oh, no.  _ “I can’t, babe, not tonight,” he replied, taking her hand off his face. 

She looked disappointed again, which he hated. “Oh, come on, the next two days are gonna either be all of us together or me with my family and you with the boys! This might be our only time alone together ‘til Christmas is over! I still have a bunch of movies I didn’t show you last year, like The Grinch and Polar Express and-”

“You showed us Polar Express.”

She shrugged. “And it’s still my favorite.” Then she hit him with the deadly move of pleading eyes.  _ “Please?” _

“Do not.”

The pleading eyes persisted.

Tomorrow was Christmas Eve. The band was gonna have Luke caught up in festivities all day. And he couldn’t wait ‘til Christmas Day to get her something- if all the good gifts hadn’t already been taken, they would definitely be by then. Julie was getting him something fancy and special and one of a kind and he was getting her something from a clearance rack? He couldn’t!

But… she was giving him pleading eyes. 

He gritted his teeth, knowing he was making a  _ terrible  _ decision as he softly replied, “Fine.”


	5. Day Four

It had taken Julie and Luke far too long to realize what they had been doing was stupid. After too many months of hopeless longing and pining, they realized there was no point in punishing themselves and each other for things out of their control. Sure, there was absolutely no way this was gonna work long term, but it was working now, and that was all they needed. They agreed they’d just take it a day at a time. 

It had now been 6 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days at a time.

Luke hadn’t even meant to keep track.

And now he had messed it up royally. She probably got him something absolutely amazing and here he was, empty-handed. For  _ Christmas!  _ Her favorite holiday! Maybe he could just get her a lazy, unromantic gift and hope she loved it because she loved him. He’d just get the lazy gift and start anniversary planning now, instead of the week before. 

But would their relationship even make it to their first anniversary? By then, she’d be 18, heading to college. No way she’d still wanna be dating her dead, ageless bandmate by then. This was his last chance to blow her mind, and he had ruined it.

Luke had spent Christmas Eve doing exactly what Alex warned him against. He watched and participated minimally as Julie, Alex and Reggie decorated, played games, and sang Christmas classics, allowing themselves to sing extremely off-key. They played charades and Luke narrowly avoided teaming up with her because despite how well they knew each other and how good they were as a charades team, he didn’t want her to lose because he was mentally somewhere else. The festive decorations on the piano looked great, no thanks to him, and he had imagined the gifts he’d gotten under the tree. He imagined the oblong shape of the shoebox he’d gotten for Alex, the long cylindrical tube holding a telescope for Reggie, and… a big ol’ question mark to give to his favorite thing about existence. 

_ Great.  _

As he walked out of another random store in the Grove, in which he found nothing, the big clock tower in the middle of the square chimed, signaling midnight. Christmas. It was officially Christmas and Luke started it wishing Santa was real so he could punch him in the face. 

_How come_ _he_ _gets to just know what everyone wants for Christmas?_

“Merry Christmas, Grove! Love, the World’s Crappiest Boyfriend!” 

As he walked under the lit street lamp, a flash of light hit him in the eye. He looked down towards the direction it came from and saw something shiny on the street. After picking it up, he realized it was a silver necklace with a pendant of some kind of red flower on it.

Maybe this was a sign. He’d just get her a nice necklace. Maybe it’d have a heart on it, or an infinity symbol or something. The most generic gift for the most unique girl he’d ever known.

_ Okay, now I’m just being negative. _

Julie would like a necklace. Maybe he’d find one with an L on it to keep close to her heart. A little longer than her necklace with her name on it so they didn’t overlap or get tangled together. 

It wouldn’t be one of a kind but it would be classy, and special. And maybe that would be enough. 

He searched and searched until he found a jewelry store where the name was displayed in cursive, so he knew it was fancy. All of the stores in the Grove were locked up, but this store looked like it might have been housing the Queen of England or something. It was visibly barred and locked up to the point where even walking through all those locks and barriers somehow seemed unpleasant. Good thing he could just…

_ Poof!  _ And he was in the store. Despite the fact that it was almost pitch dark except for the light from the security camera, the merchandise seemed to sparkle. Luke walked through the aisles, tracing his hands along the glass housing all the diamonds, emeralds, and every other gemstone he didn’t know the names of. 

Something red caught his eye. He looked closer at the necklace- a simple silver chain and a big red shiny stone, whose name was escaping him, at the bottom. The color would look lovely on Julie but the size was too flashy for her. When he finally looked up from the sparkling jewels, he saw a sign above the cashier’s station that said “Order Custom Jewelry Here” with a bottom text under that said “Charms, Engravings, & More!” 

_ Charms!  _ Luke realized, were an easy way to make a piece of jewelry one of a kind. He walked over to the register and looked around for maybe a key to get to the back office, thinking maybe they’d have charms back there when his eyes landed on a large binder with spaces between each laminated page.

_ There was no way. No way at all. This couldn’t hold… _

One copy of every charm the store offered for customers to choose from.  _ Jack. Pot.  _ Luke flipped through pages of love charms, sports charms, animal charms until he found it. The section titled “Music”. Luke would have sung with joy if he wasn’t afraid of the security camera picking it up. After that, it was all too easy. He found a charm that looked like a section of piano keys and another that looked like a guitar. He also found two versions of microphone charms that he thought about picking, but he decided against it, choosing only one, with a light blue gemstone on top.  _ Like Reggie said, we both like blue.  _

He flipped back to the section holding the love charms hoping for a simple heart when his eyes landed on a photo of a model sporting a bracelet. 

_ Of course! How was I so stupid?! _

It didn’t take a genius to know that Julie’s thing was always bracelets, not necklaces. A charm bracelet was perfect for Julie. 

Next to the binder was a rack of basic chains customers could choose to put their charms on, but Luke decided it was time to bust out his ghost privileges. Well, more ghost privileges than he’d already used. He found the bracelet section of the store, and, while trying not to get distracted by the pretty gems, searched until he found something close to what he was looking for. 

_ Please, please, please, please, plea- YES! _

He found it. A chain bracelet studded with those red stones he’d seen on that necklace earlier, but they were smaller. And the links in the chain were small enough to attach his charms to. 

In a ghost power move he’d only recently mastered, he reached into the case, encased the bracelet completely in his hand, and brought it out through the glass. With shaking hands, he attached the piano, then the guitar, then the blue mic between them. “YES!” he shouted out loud. 

So excited he forgot he could just poof out, he ran full speed ahead towards the door, until he realized  _ Wait! I gotta make this classy.  _

He went back to the register, found a black bracelet box, carefully laid his inside, and placed the lid on top. 

And with that, he was off. Through the locks and barriers, into the dimly lit street, where he screamed the loudest “WOOOOOOOOOOO!” he could muster until his throat burned. 

He had done it. When all hope seemed lost, he had found the best gift anyone had given anybody ever. And Julie deserved every bit of it. 

Julie’s back was not the sight Luke expected when he poofed back into the studio at almost 12:45, but there she was, hunched over, head bent behind their amplifier. He quickly moved the bracelet box behind his back as he called her name in surprise, startling her. 

“Luke!” she replied. “I- I thought you were at Disneyland with Alex and Reggie.”

That’s where he was supposed to be, but he was so downhearted about not thinking he’d get Julie a good gift that he couldn’t bring himself to attend the Christmas festivities at Disneyland. He would’ve been too much of a downer to Alex and Reggie. 

“I just felt like heading back early, you know,” he lied.

She squinted at him, suspecting he was lying. He was always grateful for her being the one person who could see him, but tonight he was grateful for that for a different reason: literally, anybody else would be seeing a floating jewelry box right now. 

But… “What are you looking behind the amp for?”

Just like that, her suspicion dissolved, replaced by defense. “I...was… checking it to make sure it was ready to go for tomorrow.”

With a smirk, he stepped closer to her, hand still behind his back. “At almost 1 am? When the performance is only for your family and Flynn? So we aren’t using the amp?”

Julie frowned, looking at the ground, which Luke took as an opportunity to stick the box in his back pocket. “I… lost… an earring?” she offered, despite knowing she’d been caught. 

In his softest voice, he asked “Julie, I can literally teleport anywhere I want and you think I’d hide things in the studio?”

She was right. He was planning to put it under his couch. 

He closed the space between them, running his hands over her arms before stopping at her wrists. 

“I just… I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have to get you anything else,” she explained. When he gave her a confused face, she elaborated. “I mean, of course, my gift is fancy and glamorous, but I just wanted to make sure our gifts were, like, equal? If that makes sense.”

Like the Grinch, a reference he’d just recently learned, Luke felt his heart swell 3 times too big. He could  _ never _ imagine Julie being insecure about a gift for him. “I’m about to say some really cheesy stuff, so brace for it.” She did, standing erect and staring into his eyes. “ _ You’re  _ my gift.”

She rolled her eyes and relaxed her body. “I didn’t think it was gonna be  _ that  _ cheesy.”

“No, I’m serious.” She stood straight again. “It literally does not matter what you got me. It could’ve been, uh, a paperclip from your dad’s office.” She started to laugh. “Or- or a walnut you got from the floor at the market.” She laughed harder, making him laugh along. “Whatever it is, I’m gonna love it forever. Because it came from you.” He’d heard a version of those words many times over the past week, but they never felt as true as in this moment. 

“Whatever,” she said, but she was smiling, so he knew his words landed. She walked into the space between his arms to hug him. “I missed you today.”

He knew she was talking about his attitude during the Christmas Eve activities she’d put so much into planning. “I know. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” And he meant it. From now on, any time Julie wanted to spend with him would be worry-free, which was the effect she had on him anyway. 

“Merry Christmas, Luke.”

He smiled into her hair. “Merry Christmas, Julie.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yayayay almost done uploading this story lol last chapter's gonna be up on Christmas Eve!! Thank you guys for reading and subbing so far :))


	6. Day Five (Christmas)

“ You know,” Reggie began. “It’s cool having all these cool ghost powers and all, but actually waking up on Christmas morning was a really fun part of being alive.”

“Stop!” Alex ordered, startling a dazed Luke, who had his shins draped over Alex’s legs as he reclined on the couch. “You definitely just triggered a thought about Julie. Luke, let’s hear it.”

“What? No, it did not, I wasn’t even thinking about her!” 

The boys continued to stare at him, unconvinced.

Luke sighed and relented, muttering “Waiting for Julie to wake up is a good replacement.”

Reggie snapped and pointed as if to say  _ There it is.  _ “So did you ever solve your present problem?”

In response, Luke simply smiled at the ceiling, letting the smile speak for itself.

“You did, didn’t you?! Alex, did you help him?”

“No, actually,” Alex responded. “You picked out a gift… for your girlfriend… who you like… by yourself?”

“Don’t worry, it’s really good. Better than some random headphones.” He jabbed Alex in the side with his finger before using that finger to point in his face. “Which I’m still mad at you for, by the way.”

“You can be mad all you want,” Alex retorted, sitting back and smiling to himself. “I’ll have you know Willie loved them.” 

“So, what’d you get her, anyway?” Reggie asked. “We didn’t see yours in the Julie pile.”

“You’ll know when she does. I’m gonna give it to her in her hand!”

“I like the confidence!” Alex affirmed. “Makes me only slightly less worried.”

Luke shoved his shoulder, getting off the couch. “Come on, let’s get ready.”

The boys had gotten all dressed up in their finest Christmas attire, which for Luke, meant a sweater only twice his size as opposed to thrice. And they were all wearing the Santa hats Julie had swiped for them from her house.

Finally, it was 3pm and the garage doors swung open, revealing Mr. Molina, Flynn, Carlos, and Julie dressed in her Christmas best, which was, needless to say, a far cry better than the boys’. 

She made eye contact with all three of the boys, stopping at Luke before bidding them all a Merry Christmas. Her guests also wished the boys a Merry Christmas, all wishing in a different wrong direction. 

“Never gets old,” Reggie replied before wishing them all a Merry Christmas, throwing in an extra for Julie’s dad. 

“You guys ready to rock?” she asked them.

“Duh,” Luke replied, placing a very swift kiss on her forehead while passing her to get his guitar. 

Julie placed her three gifts in the appropriate piles before heading to her keyboard to grab her mic. 

From the crowd, Alex counted off on his fingers for her to start: “1, 2, 3, 4!”

And she began. Her fingers danced across the keyboard as she sang the first few lines about sleigh bells ring-ting-tingaling until she winked at her audience right before….

BAM! The boys poofed onto the stage with their instruments. The part of the song where the chorus mimics the ringing bells was replaced by Luke’s electric guitar playing the same basic tune, with a lovely rock twist.

The second verse was Luke’s, who took the opportunity to sing about being snuggled up together comfy and cozy into Julie’s mic from behind her shoulder, enjoying her smile as she leaned into him, snapping out of it like the rockstar she was to share the mic and sing with him on the second half of the verse. 

On the part of the song where the lyric “These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives” usually goes, Julie, Luke and Reggie had made a plan to be completely silent for that part, letting a confused Alex rock out alone for a moment, inspiring earnest applause from their 3 person audience, and putting the biggest smile on Alex’s face. 

The rest of the song roared on ‘til the end, and Luke hoped one day they could perform this cover in front of a bigger audience after seeing how much Julie’s dad, Carlos, and Flynn were feeling it. 

The song ended and they knew they only had seconds. “QUICK!” Mr. Molina shouted as the band rushed over to sit in front of the piano. Alex got in the back, spreading his arms over Reggie, who sat smiling on Julie’s left, Julie in the middle, smiling as widely as humanly possible because Luke was on her right kissing her cheek.

The flash went off, and Julie waited with bated breath to see if the picture turned out, but as her dad checked, his face fell and he looked at Julie and shook his head, causing her face to fall too.

She walked up to her dad and took the camera, before looking back at the guys and sadly declaring, “We were too slow.”

One by one, they all gathered around her to look at the camera, before Reggie broke out in a laugh. “Is that how we look on camera?”

Evident from his smile, Alex also found the appearance of the orbs amusing. “This is sick! I look so creepy just, like, hovering over you guys.”

It was Luke’s turn to give his opinion. “Dude, we have to print this out right now ‘cause in, like, 50 years, this photo is gonna be all dusty and people are gonna find it in your attic and be like ‘Ghosts are real!’”

Reggie added to the vision. “But nobody is gonna believe them! Everyone’s gonna think they changed the photo somehow.” He leaned down to Julie’s height to say, in his most ominous voice “And the world will never know,” before doing his best impression of a ghostly haunting moan. 

That sold Julie. She was now smiling fondly at the photo and the boys. “I guess it’s kinda cute.”

Luke smiled as well, replying “The cutest,” only half talking about the photo.

“Luke, dude!” Alex called. “Your orb is, like, right on her face!”

“ _ I  _ was right on her face!”

Soon, they were all laughing and joking about the not-so-failed photo until everyone but the band left. 

“So what now?” Alex asked.

Prompted, Reggie yelled too loudly, “PRESENTS! Sorry, the suspense is killing me.”

They all laughed again and headed toward the piano. One by one, they all opened their gifts.

Alex removed the bonus gift of a rainbow fanny pack strap Julie had used as a ribbon and opened his unicorn onesie, which he was a little too excited about. 

Julie opened up a plain white Jansport backpack from Reggie, which he explained she could doodle to her heart’s content all over. Alex glared at Reggie for stealing the idea.

Soon almost all the presents were opened, leaving only two. “And now,” Reggie announced heartily, as Alex drum rolled on his legs. “It’s time for the main event.”

“Who wants to go first?” Alex asked.

“Julie went first last year!” Luke offered. 

“Fair enough.” 

In reality, Luke didn’t care about taking turns, he just couldn’t wait a moment longer to give her her gift. He walked over to the couch and stuck his arm underneath to retrieve the wrapped jewelry box, winking at Julie, who rolled her eyes, realizing that, of course, he hid the gift in the studio.

Biting his lip, he made it back over to her and handed it to her. “Here.”

She smiled at the very poorly wrapped package. “You wrapped this?”

“Yeah, yeah, I told you I can’t wrap gifts.” He watched her search through all the wrinkles, awkward folding, and weirdly placed tape until she found an actual border in the paper to rip from until she removed all the wrapping. 

She was already caught off guard by the jewelry box and the fancy cursive on the front, but when she opened it, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as the boys had the exact same reaction. “Luke…” she started, tracing her hands over the red stones before landing on the charms. “A- a guitar….”

“And a piano,” he finished. “And one mic in the middle because-”

“We always share.”

For the millionth time today, he smiled, because she understood before he had to explain. “Here, let me.” He took the bracelet out of the box and, after moving her many other bracelets out of his way, he clasped it over Julie’s wrist. A perfect fit. 

She was still mesmerized, feeling the red stones like she thought they might disappear before whispering, “Are these real rubies?”

_ Rubies! That’s what they’re called!  _ “Yeah! Yeah, same with the blue one on the mic. It’s all real.” She was still staring at her wrist, open-mouthed. “So… I assume you like it?”

As an answer, Julie threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close. “I love it,” she said over his shoulder. “I love it so much, it’s so beautiful! I’ll never take it off ever!”

That was the reaction he’d hoped for.

When she pulled away from the hug, Luke expected her to be smiling, but she still wasn’t smiling. In fact, quite the opposite, she almost looked worried or…  _ sad  _ about something.  _ Uh oh.  _ “What’s wrong? If it’s the value, they’re just shiny rocks, they’re not that-”

“No, it’s not that,” she replied, cutting him off. “It’s just… when we talked about 'fancy', I thought we were both joking and-”

“Julie,” Alex interrupted with a smile. “He’s gonna love it.”

Luke asked the two of them “What’s going on?” but they were just looking at each other- Julie with worry, and Alex with reassurance.

“Okay,” Julie said, turning to go retrieve the only thing still under the piano. It was small but long, and too thin and dense looking to be a box. She handed it to him, still looking worried. “Here.”

As he took it, Luke realized it was… a book? A thick, hardcover book. But he was never much of a reader.  _ Hm. _ Well, leave it to Julie to be the one person who could get him a book he’d like. As he took off the wrapping paper, though, he wasn’t greeted by a photo or words, but… small paintings? 

When all the wrapping paper was off, he looked at the front and back covers of the plain white book in his hands and realized it was covered in doodles.  _ Her  _ doodles. 

Luke took stock of small drawings of two hands clasped together, a head of dark, curly hair leaning on a shoulder attached to a head of shaggy brown hair, a basic outline of a microphone with two face shapes on either side singing into it, and many more. But this was different from her usual doodles: these were painstakingly painted in, making them pop with color. The Julie shape he’d seen singing into the microphone was wearing green and brown and his shape was wearing a bright orange beanie. She’d painted the first time they ever shared her mic. 

“I- I started it when we started dating,” she began to explain. “It’s a bunch of moments that stuck out to me from when we met up ‘til now.” As she spoke, his eyes landed on a drawing of them clasping each other’s forearms, but his arm had a bunch of little lines emitting from it, signaling that he was glowing. The first time they touched. 

As if Luke wasn’t already on the brink of implosion, she took the book from him and opened it. “And I started running out of room on the covers, so if you look around the borders of the pages, there’s a few more.” 

It was then that Luke noted the pages were all blank with thin ruling. She explained further, “Your old songbook was, like, 26 years old. It was getting a little beat up.”

Luke didn’t even know how to react. He looked to Alex, who looked at him with an “I told you so” face. He then looked to Reggie, whose teary eyes snapped Luke out of his shock. 

He looked back at Julie, who was waiting expectantly for a response. “This is…. You are….” After two attempts at a sentence, he realized he wasn’t gonna get through a complete sentence without his voice breaking.

He needed her close to him, as close as possible. Still warm from their last hug only moments ago, he pulled her in again, placing gentle kisses all over her forehead. 

“I-” she started, muffled by his hold, but he cut her off.

“I love you.”

He felt her smile into his chest. “I’m gonna beat you at this next year though.”

Luke laughed, and provided no witty comebacks, allowing the certainty of her words,  _ “next year”,  _ to ring in his head on a continuous loop.

They stayed in each other’s embrace until Reggie’s tears dried and Alex cleared his throat, letting Luke and Julie know the moment was now awkward for them. 

Julie and Luke parted and he tried to wipe one stray tear with his hand before she noticed. She noticed.

Julie broke the silence. “Okay! Uhhh, there’s gonna be Christmas dinner in the house in a couple hours, but we’re watching movies before? My dad said you guys can come as long as we don’t make anyone feel left out.”

A break from all this emotion for mindless entertainment sounded like heaven to Luke right now. “Sounds good to me.”

With one giant, glittering smile, Julie walked around the boys to leave through the garage door, still playing with the charms on her bracelet. Luke watched, clutching his new songbook to his chest, on cloud nine for the foreseeable future. 

Alex followed and Luke started to follow before Reggie pulled him back by his shoulder to say from behind: “You know… Valentine’s Day is in 2 months.”

Luke laughed and lightly shoved him, rolling his eyes and following Julie, hoping Reggie didn’t see that his comment had already inspired slight panic.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOHOO!! Final chapter!! Thank you guys so much for the hits and the kudos and support on this story, it really meant a lot!! Hope you're satisfied with the conclusion :)  
> My friend Jordan came up with the idea for the doodled songbook because there was no way in Hades I could come up with something that cute (also shoutout to my friend Allie for the unicorn onesie idea lol)  
> Random tidbit yesterday I saw a tweet that was like "imagine Julie and Luke making Christmas cookies and Julie giving luke a songbook for Christmas" and i was like 😀 wild  
> but ANYWAY YEAH I had a lot of fun writing this and I hope you guys had a lot of fun reading it!! I hope to see some of you supporting the soulmate AU (also Jordan's idea) that I'll hopefully be uploading some time in the New Year!! Thank you thank you thank you again and Happy Holidays to all of you :D


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